A robust return‐map algorithm for general multisurface plasticity

Three new contributions to the field of multisurface plasticity are presented for general situations with an arbitrary number of nonlinear yield surfaces with hardening or softening. A method for handling linearly dependent flow directions is described. A residual that can be used in a line search is defined. An algorithm that has been implemented and comprehensively tested is discussed in detail. Examples are presented to illustrate the computational cost of various components of the algorithm. The overall result is that a single Newton‐Raphson iteration of the algorithm costs between 1.5 and 2 times that of an elastic calculation. Examples also illustrate the successful convergence of the algorithm in complicated situations. For example, without using the new contributions presented here, the algorithm fails to converge for approximately 50% of the trial stresses for a common geomechanical model of sedementary rocks, while the current algorithm results in complete success. Because it involves no approximations, the algorithm is used to quantify the accuracy of an efficient, pragmatic, but approximate, algorithm used for sedimentary‐rock plasticity in a commercial software package. The main weakness of the algorithm is identified as the difficulty of correctly choosing the set of initially active constraints in the general setting. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.